So you have a phone that recognizes your face and computer that knows your fingerprints. How about a game controller that knows the smooth caress of your hands better than any other? Once you get over the creepy factor, a new patent from Microsoft for a pressure-sensitive game controller could be incredibly cool for identifying users and changing settings automatically.

So maybe the way you hold a controller isn’t as unique as a fingerprint or iris pattern, but it’s probably more than enough to differentiate you from your friends. This futuristic controller would be able to store hand pressure patterns and load the correct profile for the person holding the controller with the aid of some on-board processing.

Perhaps more interestingly, since the controller could be able to detect hand pressure continuously, it might know if you’ve handed the controller off to someone else mid-game. I would love to see a system in which button mapping could change to the preferred layout for whoever is holding the controller at the time. This likely won’t be a global system that lets you walk up to any Xbox and sign in with your hands. More likely this will be a local profile only.

This patent was filed for back in 2009, so Microsoft has had a few years to work on the technology. It might just be a throwaway bit of tech that won’t amount to much, or it could be a feature in a next generation console. If something like this works well, it could be an almost magical experience from a user’s perspective. Maybe if we’re lucky Microsoft will have something to show at E3 in a few months.